I view Trump as chemo. America has cancer. Trump is toxic, and I think he’s killing the cancer faster than he’s killing the rest of us
Doug Wilson, pastor to the US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, “Lunch with the FT”, Financial Times, 9 May
My favourite film. A toss-up between Andrei Rublev and The Muppet Christmas Carol
Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, “My Culture Fix”, The Times, 12 May
I’m not a great box-set watcher, although I have a weakness for Morse. Until recently, though, I’d have said The West Wing. But the gap between fact and fiction just now is a bit too neuralgic to be bearable, and I’ve let it gather dust lately
ibid.
. . . from despots to democratically elected presidents, leaders are increasingly imbuing themselves with the assumed moral authority that comes from professing alignment with and favour from on high. This moves the world closer to one dominated by theocracies, where dissent against a leader or ideology is portrayed as dissent against God, in which absolute authority is assumed not on the basis of a democratic mandate but by divine favour
Leo Varadkar, former Irish Taoiseach, The Sunday Times, 10 May
Pilgrimage expresses the idea of faith as a continuing journey, with its twists and turns and periods of despondency and doubt, as we walk with others and with Jesus as those two disciples did on the road to Emmaus
Ian Bradley, Emeritus Professor, University of St Andrews, The Times, 9 May
A recent Co-op Funeralcare study found that 68 per cent of people agreed that funerals should be more of a celebration of life, up from 58 per cent in 2019. The report also notes that black is no longer the required colour to wear to a funeral and location requests have become increasingly outlandish, including a London bus and — improbably — an angling pavilion
Kate Morris, The Spectator, 9 May
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